Philosophers & Saints

Monastic Stability: In One Place with God and Others

Some time ago I was asked if I would be willing to participate in a forum on localism. I hesitated. I did not even...

Christopher Lasch and the Lasting Dilemma of Localism

This past weekend, at the annual Front Porch Republic gathering (this year held at SUNY-Geneseo), three scholars reflected upon the writings of the historian...

Whatever Happened to Communitarianism?

Twenty years ago, the concept and label "communitarianism" was riding high, or at least as high as any broadly applicable yet intellectually coherent ideological...

Laudato Si’ and the Feverish Summer

For many, this summer was long, hot, and awful — at least politically; no one particularly recalls the weather. Why so rotten? Laudato si',...

From the Distant Liberal Consensus, a Defiant Conservative Yelp

As I write this review, I keep hearing about Jeb Bush, campaigning for president, talking about how the invasion of Iraq and the removal...

Puritans and The Pope: The Conflicted Christian History of American Ecological...

The responses from American Christians to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ have fallen into two predictable categories: Economic conservatives push back against Francis’ critique...

The Trouble with Limits

Modern persons have a problem with limits, three in fact. They want every good thing to be unlimitedly available for their desires, and scarcity...

Contemplation and the Empire of Desire

Philadelphia, PA R. R. Reno of First Things has recently identified the “Empire of Desire” by its odd combination of regulation and libertinism. On the...

The Parish and the Papacy

This is the fourth of a five-part series of essays on "Localism and the Universal Church." You may find the previous installments here. As I...

From the Multiversity Cave: Aquinas and Synthesis

Saginaw, MI This post is part of a series that will explore what prominent thinkers can teach us about today’s public multiversity, the modern university...